Ant Rant
Jason Arrezola, Kelby Miller, Sadie Wheeler, Destiny Winn
Problem
Will ants given the choice choose between an orange or cucumber in a given amount of time in an enclosed area.
Hypothesis
If ants are given the choice between an orange and a cucumber then they will choose the orange because ants are attracted to sweeter foods.
The manipulated variable in this lab are the orange and the cucumber. The range in this experiment is time.
Crontrol Set-Up
We are going to take 10 ants and place 5 on each side of the container; one side of the Tupperware containing a cucumber and the other an orange. We will have a blockade in the middle of the container separating the manipulated variables and the ants on each side. We will be taking scheduled pictures every 30 seconds for 5 minutes to keep track of which substance the ants prefer.
Constant Factors:
- Time
- Specimen
- Manipulated variables
Materials:
- 10 ants
- One Tupperware
- One orange slice
- One cucumber slice
- One blockade
- Timer
- Camera
Manipulated vairable procdure:
Using the Orange slice and the Cucumber slice as the manipulated variables we will determine weather ants like vegetables such as cucumbers or fruits such as oranges greater.
Control procedure
The controlled procedure is that we control the outcome of the results by putting the fruit on one side of the Tupperware and the orange on the other side. We put 10 ants on either side of the container knowing that the ants will choose the more sweet substance.
Observation
During this lab we observed that ants in the beginning had no desire for either of the product. They were only focused on escaping the tupperware. After a few minutes of observation the ants still showed little signs of interest in either. Finally toward the end of the experiment there was slightly more interest in the orange than the cucumber.
Data:
:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00
Orange: 5 7 4 5 4 4 1 6 5 10
Cucumber: 5 3 6 5 6 6 9 4 5 0
Control Procedure:
Left: 5 2 2 5 3 4 6 6 4 7
Right: 5 8 8 5 7 6 4 4 6 3
Results using Chi Squared Test: (.004, Failed to Reject)
Analysis
When faced with the decision between two substances in an enclosed area, ants will just focus on escaping the domain. We failed to reject the Null Hypothesis because there wasn't a pattern in the ants behavior. Using the Chi Square Test we proved this to be true.
Conclusion:
By using the Chi Squared Test we failed to reject the Null Hypothesis. If the domain was more comparable to the ants natural habitat the results may have varied, but the ants were just focused on leaving the tupperware.